Islanders men lose to Bethune-Cookman

A&M-Corpus Christi plays Kennesaw State at 2 p.m. Friday

LAS VEGAS - The Texas A&M–Corpus Christi men's basketball team was unable to overcome an early second-half surge by Bethune–Cookman on Thursday afternoon, falling 61-52 at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic at the Orleans Arena.

The Islanders trailed just 30-28 at halftime, but Bethune-Cookman hit three 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second half to jump out to a double-digit lead and never look back.

The Islanders (1-9) play Kennesaw State (2-9) at 2 p.m. Friday at Orleans Arena. Kennesaw State lost to Tennessee Tech 81-68 on Thursday.

Bethune-Cookman (4-8), which plays Tennessee Tech at 4 p.m. Friday, had only one win over a Division I opponent before beating the Islanders.

Chris Hawkins-Mast led A&M-Corpus Christi with 15 points to go along with his eight rebounds. James King scored a career-high 10 points, but was the only other Islanders player to reach double digits. King played a career-high 25 minutes, shattering his old mark of five minutes against Missouri State.

Myron Dempsey led the team with 11 boards, while Ted Wang set new career-bests with six points and three blocks. Want also tied his career-best with five rebounds in 20 minutes of action.

The Islanders started out strong, knocking down its first four 3-pointers and eventually took a 17-11 lead with 11:15 left in the half.

The Wildcats eventually fought back to take a 28-26 lead before a tip-in by Wang tied things up. Bethune-Cookman got a tip-in of its own before the buzzer to take a two-point lead at the half.

In the second half, the Wildcats hit three 3-pointers in the first four minutes to jump out to a 41-30 lead early in the half.

The Islanders would never get any closer than seven points the rest of the way.